AI mishap + groundhog day + post-Vac

Dear Reader,

• The last few months have been dominated by chatter about how ChatGPT and other AI algorithms are about to put journalists out of work. Well, maybe not just yet… a reporter from public broadcaster ARD appears to have decided to rely on a translation tool for a piece of research rather than doing the leg work himself. The journalist for ARD’s Faktenfinder website was tasked with giving readers objective facts on veteran investigator Seymour Hersh’s claim that the CIA blew up the Nord Stream pipelines. Unfortunately the tool took the phrase “divers would… plant shaped C4 charges on the four pipelines” and spat out a translation that made it sound like the divers had placed “plant-shaped charges” on the gas lines. What ensued was a bizarre contemplation on whether it would have made sense to disguise the explosives by moulding them into the shape of vegetation. The journalist even enlisted the help of, David Domjahn, an explosives expert from the Karlsruhe Institute for Techno…